Attorney says driver who killed 8 in wrong-way Taconic Parkway crash may have had a stroke; police say she was drunk

Frank Becerra Jr. / The Journal News via APNew York State troopers work July 26 at the scene of a fatal crash on the Taconic State Parkway in Hawthorne that killed eight people.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) -- An attorney says the woman who drove drunk and caused a New York highway crash that killed eight people was diabetic and may have suffered a stroke.

Dominic Barbara says 36-year-old Diane Schuler had diabetes, a mouth abcess for several weeks and a bump on her leg before the July 26 crash north of New York City on the Taconic State Parkway.

Barbara represents Schuler's husband, Daniel. He says that "I think she had a stroke of some sort."

Police say Schuler downed more than 10 vodkas and smoked marijuana before her minivan crashed into an SUV. Her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces were killed with her, and three men driving in the SUV. Schuler's 5-year-old son survived.

Schuler didn't appear intoxicated before she began her trip, her husband, Daniel, and a co-owner of a campground said. Her brother said she gave no warning signs to her family, but he told authorities she called him a half-hour before the wreck saying she was disoriented.

"This is the absolute last thing that we ever would have expected," Schuler's brother, Warren Hance, said in a statement Wednesday. Hance's three young daughters were among the victims.

State police said investigators didn't know of Schuler's drug or alcohol use at first, until they found pieces of a 1.75-liter bottle of vodka underneath debris from the burned-up vehicle days later.

Seth Wenig / The Associated PressMourners look on July 30 as caskets are brought out of Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church in Floral Park following a funeral Mass to remember five family members killed in a wrong-way crash.

In a statement read by family member Stephen Spagnuolo, Warren and Jackie Hance said they were "shocked and deeply saddened" by the news Schuler was intoxicated while driving their three young daughters home from a weekend camping trip Upstate.

"We would never knowingly allow our daughters to travel with someone who might jeopardize their safety," they said. "We have never known Diane to be anything but a responsible, caring mother and aunt."

The operator of the Upstate campground where the family stayed said she noticed nothing amiss when Schuler left at about 9:30 a.m. on July 26 with her son, daughter and nieces.

"I've never seen her with a drink in her hand," Ann Scott, co-owner of the Hunter Lake Campground in Parksville, said Wednesday. "If she had alcohol on her breath, I would have smelled it, believe me."

Scott said her campground does not ban alcohol but isn't a haven for partiers. Scott described the Schulers as "just a normal mom and dad with their kids."

Daniel Schuler told investigators that everything seemed fine when he and his wife left the Sullivan County campground, state police said. He went on a fishing trip while his wife headed home with the children.

Police said no criminal charges are planned, although relatives of three Yonkers men who died, including a father and son who were driving in the SUV to a family dinner, consulted with Westchester County prosecutors Wednesday.

A lawyer for Michael and Guy Bastardi's family said he wanted to ascertain whether Schuler's family members or others was aware that she had been drinking before the crash, and he suggested criminal charges were possible against anyone who knew about her condition. The attorney, Irving Anolik, told reporters after meeting with the district attorney he detected "a strong fragrance of criminality" in the case.

The relatives likely will pursue a civil case, another family lawyer said today.

"There's a lot of questions that need to be answered, but we don't know if they'll ever be answered" because of the driver's death, said the attorney, Marshall A. Neimark. "We'll never be able to get into the mindset of her ... and I think that's the most difficult thing for the families of the victims."

Meanwhile, he said, the Bastardis' relatives had stressed to him that they were praying for Schuler's son.

Several neighbors of the Schulers and Hances declined to comment Wednesday about what they knew about the Long Island family, saying they didn't want to interfere with the family's privacy.

A psychiatrist said people can often hide alcohol problems from relatives and co-workers, although he didn't have specific information on Schuler.

"They seem to be functional human beings," said Nassau University Medical Center psychiatry department chairman Constantine Ioannou, "until you find out they have been drinking all day long."